HANK Steinbrenner had a mes sage yesterday for his Yankees: Gentlemen, it’s time to get your act together.

“We’ve got to forget about all the injuries and start playing our butts off,” Steinbrenner told The Post. The Yankees were buried by the Rays on Monday. These are difficult days for Joe Girardi’s club.

“The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of playing,” Steinbrenner said. “These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for themselves to earn that money.”

The Yankees, whose $209 million payroll is the highest in baseball, are in fourth place in the AL East with a 19-21 mark. Starting pitching ranked 27th with a 5.08 ERA heading into last night’s 2-1, 11-inning loss in Tampa.

The offense is limping along because of injuries to MVP Alex Rodriguez and perennial All-Star Jorge Posada, but this slide is deeper than injuries.

Steinbrenner is right to say that injuries cannot be used as an excuse. There is too much talent for the Yankees not to be playing better.

“We have good professional hitters and I have a lot of faith in them,” Steinbrenner said from Tampa. As for the team in general, he noted, “I’m not saying they are not giving the effort, but they need to be playing harder.”

He then paid the much-improved Rays a compliment, saying, the Yankees have “got to start playing the way the Rays are playing. (The Yankees) need to start treating it like when they were younger players and going after that big contract, like they’re in (Triple-A) and trying to make the majors. That’s the kind of attitude and fire the players have to have.

“There’s no question we need to turn it around and we have the talent to turn it around. We’ve got the team in place, and now they just have to go out and do it.

“This is going to get turned around,” Steinbrenner said. “If it’s not turned around this year, then it will be turned around next year, by force if we have too.”

You might consider that a warning shot over the bow of the front office, including GM Brian Cashman.

Kei Igawa’s $46 million flop has not helped matters. In fact that’s $2 million more than the entire payroll of the Rays.

He praised the work of Chien-Ming Wang, Mariano Rivera and Joba Chamberlain, and said Mike Mussina and Darrell Rasner have done a good job as well. He said the future rotation looks bright with youngsters Chamberlain, the injured Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and last year’s top pick Andrew Brackman.

Steinbrenner also defended Chamberlain’s emotional fist pumping.

“He’s a great kid and I’m behind him 100 percent and he’s not the only pitcher to do that,” he said, citing Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon. “Joba is special to me and he means no malice by what he does.”

Steinbrenner said the Yankees will do what they’ve always done on the free-agent market and trade route.

“We’ll add whoever we have to add,” he said. “We’re missing two big pieces, but this is basically the same lineup as last year. I have great faith in all of them.”

As for the Rays, Steinbrenner said, “I’m happy for them, but I wish they were in the National League.” He said he wishes more fans would see the improved ballclub. “They only had 13,000 there (Monday) night,” Steinbrenner said. “That place should be packed. They’re an exciting young team.”

Right now it’s the young inexpensive Rays, not the Yankees, who are battling the Red Sox for first place in the AL East.